November 2011

This newsletter provides a snapshot of economic and labour market trends for a number of Asian region economies, based on official data available as of 21 November 2011, with special coverage on youth employment in the Pacific Island States, trends in wages and productivity growth, gender disparities in the labour market, green jobs, ageing societies and the social protection floor.

This issue of the International Journal of Labour Research addresses a central
issue, if not the key issue for the labour movement, that of wages and
what has happened to them over the past three decades.

Last month, Juan Somavia, the long serving Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) announced his departure in 2012.
As head of the ILO, he introduced the Decent Work Agenda in 1999 to re-focus the ILO and make it relevant for the 21st century. Twelve years later, the concept of ‘Decent Work’ is firmly established in the global debate and as an objective of national policy.

July 2011

June 2011

The crisis of 2008 revealed the fault lines in the world economy for all to
see. Three decades of a social experiment with radical market-oriented
policies have not only failed to deliver decent standards of living to most
workers around the world, but have brought us to the brink of a major world
depression.